Missing the point, in 28,000 words
Question: What are we to make of Paul Berman’s grandiose, self-indulgent, 28,000-word essay on Tariq Ramadan in the latest issue of the New Republic (aside from the fact that it happens to have the same title as an FP interview with Ramadan from 2004)? Answer: Not much. After printing out 49 pages and reading Berman’s ...
Question: What are we to make of Paul Berman's grandiose, self-indulgent, 28,000-word essay on Tariq Ramadan in the latest issue of the New Republic (aside from the fact that it happens to have the same title as an FP interview with Ramadan from 2004)?
Question: What are we to make of Paul Berman’s grandiose, self-indulgent, 28,000-word essay on Tariq Ramadan in the latest issue of the New Republic (aside from the fact that it happens to have the same title as an FP interview with Ramadan from 2004)?
Answer: Not much. After printing out 49 pages and reading Berman’s piece (as well as Ian Buruma’s vastly more concise profile of Ramadan in the New York Times Magazine, which Berman critiques at great length), I’m still not sure what he would have the world do with Ramadan. Arrest him? Criticize him? Ignore him? What’s it all about?
Berman seems not to understand, moreover, that while Ayaan Hirsi Ali certainly offers some insightful criticisms of Islam, as someone who has renounced her religion, she’s not very influential within the Muslim world itself. Ramadan, however, is popular and influential among Muslims in Europe. He matters. An essay in an elite Washington magazine won’t change that, no matter how long and comprehensive it may be.
Blake Hounshell is a former managing editor of Foreign Policy.
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